Welcome back to Term three everyone.  It has been lovely catching up with our children post-holiday and hearing of their holiday activities.  Perhaps like my family you got up close and personal with the snow, or maybe you were able to enjoy some of the KidsFest activities.

I hope you weren't one of the many families in Canterbury who have been sick over the break and it appears we have more 'bugs' at school this week.  However, for the most part we are rearing to go with our learning and term three opportunities.

It was wonderful to welcome our new students and staff to Merrin on Tuesday at our mihi whakatau.  Thank you to Susan Perring who is our new teacher in R22 who spoke so beautifully on hers and the students behalf.

We have some exciting new learning spaces in our school.  The newly opened up spaces for Year 4, Year 5& 6 and Year 7&8 have had an immediate 'wow' effect from teachers, parents and students.  As you know learning environments in schools are changing and for some have already changed.   They are open spaces which encourage collaboration.  We are thrilled with the new spaces and look forward to being able to use teacher strength and collaborative practice to best meet learner need.  

At the end of last term, Lesley Black wrote in the newsletter about her trip to Canada, to reunite herself with the colleagues and friends that she and her husband made in the early stages of her teaching career.  Lesley has been in contact and is having a wonderful time enjoying friendship, sight seeing and warm weather.  

During the last week of Term Two I had the privilege to attend the annual NZ Principals' Federation Conference, hosted in Wellington this year.  It was a timely reminder that in education, we must hold onto what is dear to our hearts and that of which we have so much success in.  Hearing from educationalists from the States, the UK and Australia,  we must continue to be firm against political agendas which lead us toward uniformity and a 'one size fits all' approach to education.

Over the past few years New Zealand education has had a drive to join the Global Education Reform Movement, we have had national standards and the Progress & Consistency Tool, we have toyed with performance pay, with league tables and we’ve got Better Public Service Targets. We have had amendments to the Education Act to allow for charter schools, and to completely transform our Teachers Council to EDUCANZ. We have had special education reviews, property debates, resourcing reviews, health and safety, vulnerable children's Act and of course the heavily resourced Investing in Educational Success initiative. Finally, let us never forget one of the biggest system changes – the payroll change to Novopay!

This for Canterbury schools has been on top of the aftermath of our Cities earthquakes.  Hopefully, never again in our lifetimes will we witness such devastation and heartbreak.

Steve Mahary spoke of the wonderful NZ curriculum that his cabinet was responsible for and reminded us that it is still revered around the world.   

It has certainly always been my opinion that political agendas will come and go, political climate temperatures will change, but great teachers working with children and parents to achieve wonderful things for communities of children will always remain.   I am very proud of the whole-child education we provide at Merrin and excited about the future for our school.

Of course as a Highlanders fan, the week just got better and better!

On the last Sunday of the holidays I presented the Avonhead Mall Art Competition winners with their prizes.  What a wonderful array of talent there has been on display at the Mall over the past few weeks, I was super impressed, as were a lot of the mall customers that approached me on the day of the prize giving.  A big thank you to Tracey Steel for liaising this initiative for us and a tremendous thank you to Katrina Craw the Centre Manager.  Katrina supplied the canvases for every student and put the whole initiative together.  The icing on the cake is that the Mall has given our school  a $2000 donation.This is a fabulous contribution and we are very grateful to Katrina, the mall shop owners and to everyone in our community who voted.  The Pupil Council is investigating  ways this money can be spent.

We are looking forward to next week's opportunity to showcase our Year 7&8 programme at Merrin.  There are opportunities for you to visit with Laetitia and I during the day on Monday and Thursday, to tour the area and then to come along and hear from the students and staff on Wednesday 29th at 7pm.  Emails about this and two paper copies of notices have been sent home, but if you are unsure of any details then please phone or email Lee:  leemckenzie@merrin.school.nz  It would be lovely to see you there!

Next week  we   'Whakanuia the wiki o the reo Māori',  Celebrate Māori language week.  

There are a great number of fantastic websites, here is just one: http://www.maorilanguage.net/maori-made-easy/.  Many of the websites have sound bites available for you to hear the pronunciation.

How good is your Te Reo?  Do you know what these items are?  

(Clue - basic classroom objects)

pukapuka

ruri

pene

peke

Perhaps you can challenge yourself as a family to learn something new next week?

ka pai - good

aroha mai - sorry

ata māria - good morning

turituri - be quiet

kia ora - hello

ae - yes

whakarongo - listen

(Apologies about the missing macrons, I will need to learn how to do this accurately on this software).

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.

He i konā mai

Lisa